TUCSON:

After three days in San Diego we headed to Tucson to spend a few days at “home” and then headed up for a few days in Phoenix with my brother’s family. Scotland loved playing with Poppa and Gama and blowing kisses and waving everytime he walked past Great-Grandma Pettijohn. We took advantage of the heat and pool, and he all sorts of delicious things. (Eegees!)


One morning Tom and I left Scotter with Poppa and Grandma and headed down to visit two of Tom’s best friends. We ended up being gone all morning, but Scotland probably didn’t notice. Pam said he didn’t even cry once, but was happy as could be. I LOVE that my son loves his grandparents.

We were lucky to have Grandma Pettijohn there while we were visiting. She is it terrific health, physically, though Alzeimer’s has taken a toll on her mind. She and Scotland developed a sweet relationship. She spent much of her time watching TV in the front room. Scotland loved walking up and down the hall, and every time he passed he would wave and she would flutter her fingers and grin broadly waving back. I’ll never forget one time when Scotland was saying goodnight, he walked up to her and she got down on her knees to hug him. Her age slowed her movement but her intent was clear, she was eager to show her love for him. It was one of those moments I want to stamp in my memory. A moment I hope to share with Scotland many times over the years. I love the four generation picture above. It was taken late one night, just before we packed up to leave. We just all realized that we had an opportunity to capture four generations,and couldn’t pass it up. I love how comfortable Scotland looks amongst these great women. How happy Tom looks, how proud Katherine looks. It’s a treasure.
 
PHOENIX:
We had a wonderful visit with Derek and Audrey and their kids. Audrey treated us to the Children’s Museum which was amazing.

Waterworks center

There was a section devoted to Legos- they had these huge legos, as well as duplos and normal legos. There were stations were you could build a car to race, or free build. Scotland LOVED it. He is very dedicated to his duplo building. (As you can see in the above picture- he would not stop building to take a picture, he was determined to fill in the “window” and didn’t stop until it was filled. 

All the boys: Random boy, Caleb, Eli, Owen and Scotland

There was a lot of lego playing by all

And of course Tom built one of his famous paper airplanes for Owen. As you can see from Owen’s smile he was OVERJOYED!

 

Tom and I couldn’t get enough of this little guy, Caleb. He is so hilarious. He’s already a freegan- we will periodically go to the trash can look in and grab something to chomp on. He’s also quietly mischievious. He gets into and destroys everything but he’s so sweet about it you can’t get mad!

I loved how all the boys played together. Scotter is still walking around our house looking for all the other little boys.

These two were so funny. They didn’t seem to interact much, but several times a day you would find the two of them sitting together on the stairs. Like two old Italian guys in a piazza. There going to be buds.

We got to join their family’s Booing excursion. (They make treats and secretly deposit them at friends doors with a message saying they should then go boo two other families, leaving the same message.) I loved creeping around the neighborhood with Ryanna and Owen. And I have fond memories of making cupcakes with Eli.

This is a terrible picture but it captures so perfecly Scotland’s desire to be play with other kids. You can see him here, tucked away in a corner, trying to help Owen put a small lego on his plane. 

I love this picture of Ryanna. There were little boys playing and hollaring all around her (behind the couch) but she is skillfully able to tune them out in order to have some peace. We didn’t get to spend as much time with Ryanna as I would have liked since she was in school.

Some of the other highlights of our visit were: our late night political conversation, my 10 mile run with Derek, and figuring out the Eleventh Hour with Owen.

We love you guys!